Taylor Swift now owns “all of the music I’ve ever made,” she says in a letter posted on her website on Friday. Swift has purchased the masters of her first six albums back from Shamrock Capital, which owned them after entertainment executive Scooter Braun sold them to the company.
“All I’ve ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able to one day purchase my music outright with no strings attached, no partnership, with full autonomy,” Swift says. “I will be forever grateful to everyone at Shamrock Capital for being the first people to ever offer this to me.”
Swift says she was able to buy back the music because of the support for her re-recorded Taylor’s Versions albums and for The Eras Tour concerts. She also now owns her music videos, concert films, album art and photography, and unreleased songs. “I can’t thank you enough for helping to reunite me with this art that I have dedicated my life to, but have never owned until now,” Swift says.
Braun took ownership of the masters when he acquired The Big Machine Label Group in 2019, which Swift at the time called her “worst case scenario.” Swift said that “for years” she had “asked” and “pleaded” for “a chance to own my work,” but Big Machine said that she could “earn” one album back for each new one she completed.
Braun sold the masters to Shamrock Capital in 2020 for around $360 million, which is “relatively close” to what Swift paid to buy them back, Billboard reports.
“I am happy for her,” Braun says in a statement.
Update, May 30th: Added statement from Scooter Braun.
